Buried Treasure of the Neighborhood

Last year, I wrote about the souterrain on Horn Head.  Recently I learned that not too long ago, someone found treasure inside it. 


A Hoard of Viking-Age Silver Ring-Money from Lurgabrack, Horn Head, Co. Donegal. 

In September 2011 the discovery of a hoard of silver arm-rings was reported to the National Museum of Ireland. The hoard was found in the course of unlicensed metal-detecting in a souterrain in the downland of Lurgabrack, on the Horn head peninsula near the town of Dunfanaghy, in north Co. Donegal. The site is located in an area of sand dunes at the base of the peninsula and close to a rock outcrop at an altitude of 80-90m O.D. It lies north-west of a large sandy beach known as Tramore Strand. 

 

Eight silver arm-rings were discovered. All are of the plain ring-money type, a relatively rare type in Ireland but very commonly found in Scandinavian Scotland. Four of the rings from the Lurgabrack hoard are made from rods of round section, and four from rods of lozenge section. The terminals vary from very plain, unworked, to flattened spatulate examples. ...

This Irish Archeology shop sells reproductions of decorated Viking ring money. Nice. 

The arm-tiers were discovered at floor level within the souterrain, which measures approximately 12m long. 1m height and over 1m wide. The souterrain was discovered in 1968 and surveyed at the time by Brendan Ó Riordáin of the National Museum of Ireland. The walls of the souterrain are dry-stone and the roof is constructed with large flags. The hoard was found in apparently sandy soil, just south of a pair of projecting amp and lintels that reduce the width of the souterrain passage considerably.

The rings were found just in front of these projecting amp and lintels. Boot for scale.

Unfortunately, the find circumstances of this hoard did not allow for analysis of the disposition of the arm-rings and therefore it is not possible to speculate as to what type of container, if any, the objects were buried in. 

The deposition of the objects within the souterrain, however, is noteworthy. A Viking-Age silver hoard from Raphoe, Co. Donegal, was apparently found "at the base of a dry stone ditch," while another example from Roosky, Co. Donegal, was found in the wall of a castle. In Scotland, a number of silver hoards are recorded from within a structure, one a stone cost or a ‘simple arrangement of stones. The Lurgabrack hoard was probably placed in the souterrain for self-keeping or in order to conceal it.  

The term “ring-money” has been used to describe mostly plain (that is, undecorated) peninsular rings formed from a single rod of metal. The term has been used in relation to a variety of objects from different periods, but in this context refers to Viking-Age silver rings, typically of adult arm-ring size that probably represent a simplifications of earlier single-rod arm-rings. Ring-money has been used to describe Viking-Age objects of this type since the 1800s when it was used to characterize such artifacts in the Skill board. The term assumes that the plainness of the rings indicates their use as a form of currency. This is supported by the fact that some seem to have been manufactured to a target weight of c 24.0  +/- .8 gm

Ring-money appears to have originated in the Irish Sea region, but survives in its greatest quantities in Scandinavian Scotland.
According to James Graham-Campbell some of the earliest forms of ring-money have stamped decoration around the circumference of the hoop, such as those from Cuerdale in Lancashire and from Dysart island in Co. Westmeath, the latter deposited around 907.

Ring-money is represented over one-third of all the known Scottish Viking-Age hoards, seven of which can be coin-dated. The Scottish record indicates that over ninety complete examples and a few hundred fragments are known, and these date to between the min-tenth and mid-eleventh centuries. The Skaill hoard, whose deposition is dated to 950-70, is the earliest coin-dated hoard to contain ring-money from Scotland. Some variety in the manufacture of these rings may be chronologically significant. 

This souterrain is at near the top of my list of "Favorite Places of Ireland." Unless you know what you're looking for, it's hard to find, but I'm sure it was known by the locals long before 1968. 





The souterraine is to the right of those white stones near the top of the ridge. Lorgabreac means "speckled ridge" and maybe the name refers to to the white stones on the ridge, most of which are covered in the dune by now. The Irish word for "ridge" literally means "shin." The Irish language often uses the same words for geographic features and human body parts. 

Can you spot the souterrain? 

How about now? 

This is the current entrance to the souterrain.  This entrance is a collapsed wall with a wooden support across the opening.

The souterrain is probably all that's left of a house's basement storing food and hiding treasure. I know that's the accurate explanation. But when you crawl inside, it feels like you're exploring a castle built by very tiny people, and you're the giant. 

As you can see, this would be an excellent place for a house, sheltered by dunes to the north, and with a wide view of the harbors. 

The view, southwest. 

The view, southeast. 

One final quote from the archeology paper:

No information was recorded as to the disposition of the objects in the ground, other than that they appeared to have been placed close together.

And this is the tragedy of treasure hunters using metal detectors in Ireland. An archeologist friend told me that metal detecting is absolutely prohibited in Ireland, as everything under the ground on the island belongs to the Irish state. This is nothing like the law in the UK, where archeology "finds" belong to the landowner. They can keep what they find in their private collection, but if they want to sell, they must offer to museums first. British landowners split the proceeds of metal detecting with the finder. 







I wonder if they found anything else in the souterrain? Will we ever know? Someone does, and perhaps there is more to the story.